The 28-year-old is yet to concede a goal in five starts since the beginning of the season, and if he manages to hold out against Athletic Bilbao for the opening 72 minutes on Wednesday he will break Miguel Angel’s record of 431 minutes without conceding, a Real Madrid club record established during the 1975-76 season.

Navas was never expected to be the club’s number one goalkeeper, with David de Gea widely expected to take over from the outgoing Iker Casillas as the club’s first-choice keeper.

But with the De Gea move collapsing after a paperwork snafu on transfer deadline day, World Cup star Navas found himself unexpectedly starting for Rafa Benitez’s team.

Should Navas beat Angel’s record, he will still be some way short of the Liga record: that was set by Barcelona’s Claudio Bravo just last season, as he went 754 minutes without having to pick the ball out of the net.